Norwich paedophile abuse: Sadomasochistic women led child sex ring

Marie Black was the ring leader of a child sex gang that played poker to decide which child to rapeHandout

Depraved Marie Black and her gang of paedophiles face jail for acts of child abuse including playing poker to decide which boy of girl would be raped. The 34-year-old was convicted of 23 counts including rape and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and is due to be sentenced on Monday 28 September alongside Michael Rogers, 53, of Romford, Jason Adams, 43, and Carol Stadler, 60, both of Norwich.

Black wept hysterically when she was found guilty at Norwich crown court in July and shouted: "I've been stitched up!" Rogers, was found guilty on 14 counts including cruelty, rape and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Jason Adams, 43, from Norwich, was found guilty on 13 similar counts. Stradler was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm but cleared of nine other charges. Ten people – six women and four men – had been on trial accused of the abuse of five children.

During the trial jurors were told how children were subjected to a decade of harrowing ordeals and treated like "sexual playthings". The jury heard that the gang would force the children to have sex with each other and the adults would play poker to see which child they would abuse. One victim told how Stadler would tell him that they were going to see a chiropractor, but instead he was taken to a building near an industrial estate where he was raped by a man wearing a black uniform. Black would also have sex with men in front of the children and take photos of the abuse.

The sadomasochists would conduct the abuse at locations in Norwich and London and would inflict pain upon the children while sexually abusing them. So routine were the attacks that the children came to view them as "normal". "I just thought it was usual, that everybody did it," one boy said.